


What Would Tony Stark Do?

by inkinmyheartandonthepage



Series: We Forgot Peter [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, DUME is a disaster, DUME tries to help, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Mischief, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker, Robots, Team Dynamics, Team Fluff, Team as Family, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony is a good dad, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26206216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkinmyheartandonthepage/pseuds/inkinmyheartandonthepage
Summary: Steve can handle this. He could totally handle this. Tony didn't need to know. If only he had remembered Spider-Man before they ended up on the news.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: We Forgot Peter [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891810
Comments: 116
Kudos: 2254
Collections: The Best Irondad/Spiderson Fics, The Best Peter Parker Fluff Fics





	What Would Tony Stark Do?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! 
> 
> Thank you so much for all the love! I am so happy that you are enjoying this and thank you so much for all the prompts. I am getting to them as fast as I can so I want to thank you for your patience! I'm so happy so many of you are enjoying this series! I wasn't really sure how it would go but I've gotten so much love for it! 
> 
> This prompt is from KendraDhyanna from A03 - I would love to see a short where the general public and the Avengers forget that Peter is like Tony's son. You know where you can be all bright and confident in a situation where you are underestimated. Like a press conference or presentation where he's replacing Tony.
> 
> I hope you enjoy and apologies for any mistakes!

WWTSD

What Would Tony Stark Do.

Seeing as none of them were even close to being Tony Stark (and the Avengers wondered if there was anyone on the planet _like_ the eccentric billionaire) they weren’t entirely sure how to proceed. This is not the situation they had wanted to find themselves in on a Wednesday afternoon but here they were.

“People are starting to stare,” Bruce said, glancing around the street nervously.

“And recording,” Clint added, narrowing his eyes as one citizen raised their camera phone and held it steadily in their direction. The citizen even had the audacity to wave.

“We should clear the area,” Steve directed, glancing at the crowd that was starting to get bigger, curious eyes trying to see what they had surrounded. “We don’t want this to end up on the news.”

“I’d say that is too late,” Natasha muttered to Clint who nodded gravelly.

“I could try and lift it again,” Thor suggested, flexing his arm muscles.

Steve shook his head. “No, you made it angry when you tried it the first time which only made it wander away further.”

“We have to do something,” Natasha pointed out. “We should call Stark.”

“No,” Steve nearly shouted. “No, we don’t need to call him. We can do this.” He drew himself to full height, chest puffing out. He flinched back though as it started chirping angrily at him and started moving towards him.

Sniggers from the crowd filled the air and Steve glared as Clint who snorted with laughter.

“I really think we need to call Tony,” Bruce worried. “Or maybe Colonel Rhodes? They will know what to do.”

“No,” Steve said firmly. “Tony doesn’t have to know about this.”

“You just don’t want him to yell at you,” Natasha smirked. 

Steve scowled at her.

“Surely Man of Iron would see the humour in this situation,” Thor smiled easily. “Besides, it doesn’t appear to be doing any harm.”

“Thor, it’s holding one of Tony’s housing units that he’s been working on,” Bruce explained gently to the God. “I don’t think it’s stable enough to be outside in the public just yet.”

“I’m guessing if it dropped it, that wouldn’t be a good thing?” Clint asked.

“No, it wouldn’t,” Bruce agreed, taking his glasses off and rubbed at his eyes before sliding them back on.

Steve really didn’t want to call Tony. It hadn’t been that long since they had returned from exile. Everyone had been tensed around the tower to begin with (though Nat never outwardly showed it) but over the months they had started to get a lot better. Tony had avoided them at the beginning but had slowly come to join them for small batches of time.

Things had gotten better with the return of Bruce and Thor. It had been awkward to explain to them what had happened between them all. Bruce had mainly sat in silence as he listened while Thor pulled ridiculous faces and scoffed at their pettiness. But things were better now, and they were slowly becoming the team they had once been.

Steve didn’t want to jeopardize that and if the billionaire found out that one of his experiments had gotten outside, Steve knew that they would be right back at square one. He wanted nothing but to earn Tony’s trust back and the situation they were in was not the way to do that.

“We can’t just stand here all day,” Clint huffed. “We’re going to end up on the six o’clock news at this rate.” 

“It’s a little late for that.”

Everyone looked up at the new voice that came from above them and Steve spotted the familiar red and blue figure crouched on top of a lamp post, head cocked to one side as he stared down at them.

“You guys are all over Instagram and Twitter,” Spider-Man continued. With an unnecessary flip, Spider-Man landed lightly beside Bruce who jumped slightly. “What are you guys doing?”

“Spider-Man,” Steve nodded at the vigilante.

Steve was really trying with the vigilante. Queens had yet to reveal his identity to the team and as far as Steve knew, only Tony was aware of just who was under the mask (though Steve suspected that perhaps Nat knew but she was keeping her lips shut). After their disastrous first couple of meetings, Steve was well-aware that the vigilante didn’t trust him after what had happened with Tony.

Spider-Man often appeared with the training sessions and sometimes hung around for pizza afterwards but never stayed long and hung out mostly with Tony. Until Bruce had come along, and the young vigilante had stumbled out a rambled speech of blatant awe. When Bruce went to pull out of the handshake, he found himself stuck. Spider-Man had been so embarrassed and tried to peel himself off while Tony just cackled beside him. Eventually the two had separated and Spider-Man had fled in embarrassment and from then on had mostly kept his contact with the scientist to a minimum.

Steve thought it was really good to see Tony getting close to someone else – _Tony was close to Spider-Man_. Steve could have hit himself. How could he have forgotten.

“Is that DUME?” Spider-Man asked.

DUME (and _that’s_ what its name was. Steve was sure that Nat had just called him an idiot) whirled around to Spider-Man and let out a series of chirps, claw spinning around rapidly.

“DUME, buddy what are you doing outside?” Spider-Man asked, stepping forward to pat the robot’s arm.

To Steve’s surprise, the robot seemed to answer Spider-Man, letting out a series of beeps and chirps, claw spinning back and forth.

“DUME, you know you’re not allowed outside,” Spider-Man whined. “Mr. Stark got so mad the last time I took you out for a walk!”

Clint snorted, turning his head to hide his smile while Natasha’s own head ducked down quickly. She looked up a moment later, face carefully blank.

DUME let out a series of sad sounding beeps.

“Is that what I think it is?” Spider-Man pointed at the object in DUME’s claws.

“It’s the housing unit for the Nano technology, yes,” Bruce answered. “I have no idea why he has it or why he decided to take it outside of all places.”

“Mr Stark is going to put you up for scraps DUME,” Peter moaned. “Why did you think this was a good idea?”

DUME let out a series of chirps, rolling forward again and while everyone else jumped out of the way, Peter gently put a hand on DUME to stop him.

“No, DUME. We have to put it back,” Spider-Man shook his head. “Mr. Stark will be so mad! He won’t let either of us back in the lab!”

Steve swore he could hear panic in the rapid beeps that followed Spider-Man’s statement.

“I’ll carry it,” Spider-Man said, holding out his hand.

To the surprise of everyone, DUME extended his claw and dropped the housing until into Spider-Man’s waiting palm.

  
“Good job, buddy,” Spider-Man said. “Race you back to the tower?”

DUME chirped, spinning around and taking off, Steve jumping out of the way before he got trampled over.

“Hey! That’s cheating!” Spider-Man yelled after DUME who was making surprisingly good headway. “Nobody said go!” and then Spider-Man was taking off, running down the street after the robot.

“You’re right,” Clint said. “We shouldn’t have called Tony. We should have called the spandex kid.”

Steve nodded with agreement. “Can’t believe we didn’t think of it.”

They made their way back to the tower, most of the crowd dispersing but a few eager fans trailed after them in hopes of getting a photo. When they reached the lobby, finally able to shake off the remaining fans, Spider-Man and DUME were already waiting by the elevator.

The all filed into the lift, all of them only just able to fit, Spider-Man clinging to the roof with just his fingers as DUME’s claw extended out to him. Steve shook his head as Spider-Man seemingly gave the robot a high-five and he could tell that the vigilante was grinning under his mask.

“So, which one of you let DUME out?” Spider-Man asked as the elevator went up.

“He got out on his own,” Steve said, a touch of defensiveness creeping into his voice. “FRIDAY alerted us that he had gotten out.”

DUME chirped and beeped, giving his claw a little spin.

“Did you ask for permission?” Spider-Man asked.

DUME’s claw lowered.

The elevator door opened on to their floor, the group trailing out with DUME shuffling out last and Spider-Man flipping out beside him.

“Why are the Avengers trending on Twitter?” Tony’s voice filtered from the living space. “And why is DUME on this floor?”

DUME backed up into Spider-Man legs, causing the vigilante to hiss but ultimately swung an arm over the Robot and leaned nonchalantly against the robot.

Tony wondered over to them, eyes narrowed and locked on Spider-Man and his robot. He paused in front of the group, crossing his arm over his chest.

“Tell me you didn’t take DUME back outside,” Tony growled.

“He was already outside when I got there!” Spider-Man cried.

The group groaned aloud.

“We need to teach you the art of showing your hand,” Natasha rolled her eyes. 

“What happened?” Tony demanded.

“DUME got out,” Bruce explained. “FRIDAY alerted us that he was out, and he had your experimental housing unit in his claw.”

Tony whipped his face to glare at DUME. “You took that outside?”

DUME chirped and beeped rapidly, claw spinning in all directions.

To Steve, it looked as if the Robot was trying to defend its actions, but he had no idea the reasoning behind the robot’s little adventure.

“No excuses,” Tony snapped. “You know you aren’t allowed to touch that! You stupid piece of metal! This time I _will_ donate you to a community college.”

“Awww come on, Mr. Stark!” Spider-Man said.

“Zip it, Spidey,” Tony huffed. “He knows he’s only allowed to touch the fire extinguisher and he _knows_ he isn’t allowed outside unless I’m there with him! You do _not_ count as adult supervision. Why would you even take it outside?”

DUME let out another series of beeps.

“I believe he was taking it to the ducks,” FRIDAY chimed in.

“What?” Tony looked to the ceiling in exasperation.

“You said earlier that a duck would be have better luck trying to fix this better than you,” FRIDAY supplied helpfully. “I believe DUME was taking it to the ducks to get it fixed in order to help you.”

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was being self-deprecating. I was frustrated I didn’t mean an actual duck, DUME.”

“He was just trying to help,” Spider-Man cooed. “You can’t be mad at him, Mr. Stark!”

Tony looked at the wide-eyes of Spider-Man’s mask and DUME’s slowly spinning claw with irritation but there was so much fondness leaking through that it didn’t have the intended effect Steve thought it was supposed to.

“Where is the housing unit now?” Tony sighed.

“Here you go,” Spider-Man handed over the unit. “It was fine.”

“We’re sorry, Tony,” Steve said. “We didn’t realise he had gotten out until it was too late.”

Tony waved Steve’s apology off. “Not your fault. FRIDAY should have known better than to let her brother out.”

“Sorry boss,” FRIDAY chimed, sounding a little remorseful.

“Right, both of you to the lab,” Tony pointed at Spider-Man and DUME.

“Can’t we take him to see the ducks?” Spider-Man asked.

“What- no, he can’t go out and see the ducks,” Tony huffed. “He’s in trouble. He doesn’t get rewarded for going outside on his own.”

“But he’s sorry!” Spider-Man cried.

DUME lowered his claw down and let out a series of sad sounding beeps.

“See! He just wanted to help! Please! Can we take him to see the ducks?”

“Unbelievable,” Tony shook his head. “No, you can’t take him to see the ducks. Both of you in the elevator. Now.”

“Don’t worry buddy,” Spider-Man stage whispered, arm still wrapped around the robot as they headed to the elevator. “I’ll take you another day.”

DUME chirped and beeped brightly.

“These two,” Tony sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face. “The reason for all my grey hairs. Hey! Wait for me! Geeze! Unbelievable.”

None of the Avengers were surprised when the weekend rolled around and Tony Stark was spotted in Central Park with DUME and Spider-Man feeding the ducks. 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy reading :)


End file.
